“Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread.” Psalm 37:25
Always faithful…period. So several months ago, my sister gave me some copies of some old home movies. She gave me the original films which were silent 8mm reels but she also gave me a usb drive with the same movies but rerecorded in a digital format. Well, I didn’t and don’t have an 8mm projector so those copies sit in my office on a shelf reminding me of days gone by. The thumb drive ended up plugged into my television set. After watching some of it, I forgot it was even there–until a couple of days ago.
I’m not exactly sure how but I think I was going up the stairs at my house and since my television is mounted on the side of our stairs, I was able to glance at the backside of the television–and there was the drive still plugged in. I had rediscovered a treasure. So that night, I sat down and began watching the old home movies. Turns out they were from the mid-sixties and a couple of things became quickly apparent. First, my Daddy apparently loved to take pictures of the landscape. That was obvious from our visit to see brother number two in the Smokey Mountains, brother number three in Texas and finally brother number four in New Jersey.
Thankfully though, he also took some great pictures of our family. For the first time in a long time I once again saw my Daddy, my Momma, my Granddaddy and my grandmother. And, of course, there were pictures of my brothers and sisters. Most of them–my grandparents and Momma and Daddy plus all my bothers and one of my sisters have changed addresses and moved to heaven. It reminded me that one of the things that will make heaven heaven is seeing my loved ones who knew Jesus again.
The other thing that caught my attention was the passage of time. You see, a much younger Dewayne was in more than a few of those scenes. I was no older, and mostly younger, than eleven in most of the movies and some of those movies were about things that I have written about over the years. There were a couple of Christmases and Easters and trips to see the brothers. It was pretty apparent that this younger Dewayne was definitely a little nerdy and a whole lot irritating most of the times. I think I outgrew most of that but let’s just say there are still signs of the past in my present.
So, the whole point of that is this–a whole lot of water has passed under the bridge since. If my math and calendar are correct a little more than sixty years have come and gone. And while a whole lot of things have changed there is one constant–God. He was God in the mid-sixties when I was struggling to find my way and He is God today as I continue that same struggle–to do life and find my way. While customs change, ways change, and we change–He never does. It is just like the Bible says about Jesus in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Take that one to the bank.
Oh and one more thing. I was reading in my Jesus time this morning and one of the devotions quoted Psalm 37:25. It says, “Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread.” How about that. Oh the ever consistent and precious love and faithfulness of God. I probably didn’t realize it then but the fact is no matter the decade, no matter the circumstances that always and forever, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 